Link: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2010/07/the_economy_cant_recover_until.html

The economic recovery is sputtering, as Neil Irwin documents. Economists think growth between April and June was 2 to 2.5 percent, which is anemic at best. Job growth has been disappointing. Lately, I've been asking economists about this, and everyone says the same thing: The normal cycle of recovery has broken.

Link: http://www.enewspf.com/index.php/latest-news/analysis/17840-obama-administration-in-danger-of-establishing-new-normal-with-worst-bush-era-policies-says-aclu-

The Obama administration has repudiated some of the Bush administration's most egregious national security policies but is in danger of institutionalizing others permanently into law, thereby creating a troubling "new normal," according to a new report released today by the American Civil Liberties Union.

Link: http://socialistworker.org/2010/07/29/terrible-truth-about-good-war

Why the classified Pentagon documents on Afghanistan released by WikiLeaks present a damning portrait of who is suffering from the U.S. war. THE RELEASE of more than 92,000 classified documents relating to the war in Afghanistan by the muckraking Web site WikiLeaks has left the Obama administration and its war partners trying to defend the indefensible.

Link: http://wsws.org/articles/2010/jul2010/econ-j29.shtml

More than one in five Americans in 2009 suffered a household income loss of 25 percent or more over the previous year, according to a new report sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation and entitled “Economic Security at Risk.” The report documents a steady increase in economic insecurity since the 1960s, and concludes that annual income losses of 25 percent or greater increased by 49.9 percent between 1985 and 2009.

Link: http://wsws.org/articles/2010/jul2010/gulf-j29.shtml

The first 100 days of the BP Gulf oil catastrophe have provided an object lesson in the destructiveness and irrationality of capitalism.

Link: http://wsws.org/articles/2010/jul2010/pers-j29.shtml

The public release of the 92,000 secret documents on the Afghanistan war by WikiLeaks, together with the reaction of the media and the official establishment, has immense political implications for the antiwar struggle in the US and internationally.

Link: http://www.democracynow.org/2010/7/29/patrick_cockburn_on_missing_billions_in

In Iraq, an official audit by the US Special Investigator for Iraq Reconstruction found that the Pentagon cannot account for almost $9 billion taken from Iraqi oil revenues between 2004 and 2007 for use in reconstruction. Meanwhile, a new medical study has found dramatic increases in infant mortality, cancer and leukemia in the Iraqi city of Fallujah, which was bombarded by US Marines in 2004. We speak with Patrick Cockburn, Middle East correspondent for the London Independent.

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/07/29-6

"In watching the flow of events over the past decade or so, it is hard to avoid the feeling that something very fundamental has happened in world history." This sentiment, introducing the essay that made Francis Fukuyama a household name, commands renewed attention today, albeit from a different perspective.

Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/28/arizona-us-immigration-law-protest

A federal judge yesterday slapped down key elements of a controversial anti- immigration law in Arizona, handing a temporary victory to the Obama administration against a rising tide of anti-immigration feeling in the US. Judge Susan Bolton granted a preliminary injunction which prevents implementation of two main elements of the legislation: the requirement that police determine the immigration status of people they arrest or question should they suspect them of being illegal, and the part of the new law that would make it a state crime for a foreigner to be in Arizona without registration papers.

Link: http://www.alternet.org/economy/147667/4_bogus_attacks_bankers_and_their_political_puppets_are_using_to_attack_elizabeth_warren/

Nominating a dedicated reformer like Warren will send a clear signal to the entire world that the U.S. government is serious about regulating the banks that drove the global economy off a cliff. Nominating anybody else will send a clear signal that bankers still have veto power over key political appointments. By contrast, there are no compelling arguments against appointing Warren. Four have basically been offered, and they are all so weak that it's hard to view them as anything but bad-faith excuses to block somebody the bank lobby simply doesn't like.

Link: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE66S0JP20100729?type=domesticNews&feedType=RSS&feedName=domesticNews

Foreclosures rose in 3 of every four large U.S. metro areas in this year's first half, likely ruling out sustained home price gains until 2013, real estate data company RealtyTrac said on Thursday.

Link: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38457713/ns/business-economy_at_a_crossroads/

The U.S. economic recovery will remain slow deep into next year, held back by shoppers reluctant to spend and employers hesitant to hire, according to an Associated Press survey of leading economists.

Link: http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/article.asp?ID=13137

The Obama administration is seeking to make it easier for the FBI to compel companies to turn over records of an individual's Internet activity without a court order if agents deem the information relevant to a terrorism or intelligence investigation.

Link: http://www.naturalnews.com/029314_waterways_contamination.html

The President's Cancer Panel (PCP) recently released its yearly report to the President outlining the status of cancer in America. This year's report focuses primarily on environmental factors that contribute to cancer risk. According to the report, pharmaceutical drugs are a serious environmental pollutant, particularly in the way they continue to contaminate waterways across the country (and the world).

Link: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38463013/ns/technology_and_science/

Users' personal information cannot now be made private, security consultant says. The personal details of 100 million Facebook users have been collected and published online in a downloadable file, meaning they will now be unable to make their publicly available information private.